Artist Research - Fiona Banner

Fiona Banner is a contemporary English artist who was short-listed for the Turner Prize in 2002. Banner’s work primarily consists of airplanes this is why I have chosen to research her practice further as I am working on a project about flight.

Fiona Banner: Peace on Earth 2007

Since 1988 Tate Britain has commissioned a leading contemporary artist to design its Christmas tree every year. In 2007 banner was chosen to decorate the 30-foot tree. At the time it was the largest tree to be installed at Tate Britain. Banner decorated the tree with 123 handmade kit models of all the world’s fighter planes that were currently in service, anywhere in the world. This collection of diminutive models forms an ‘A to Z’ of military airplanes, yet bears no markings of nationality.

Information from video Tate Shorts New Work: Fiona Banner

The piece was originally called parade. Banner first started making model aircraft at goldsmiths in London over 20 years ago. She started by compiling a list of all the fighter planes that were currently in service anywhere in the world. It took her a long time to create the list because the list changes all the time. Banner discusses the idea of the Christmas tree being somewhat warped as we celebrate nature by cutting down a virile tree and bringing it indoors to slowly watch it die in conjunction with this she stated it occurred to her that in many ways the planes belong to nature they have nicknames that are of nature for instance the Sea Harrier, Black Hawk, Raven and Eagle and also that in many ways they are incredibly delicate. Finally banner explains from a distance the tree looks very pretty but as you get closer you see it isn’t pretty at all its about this complicated violent stuff, is it a celebration or is it something much darker.

http://channel.tate.org.uk/media/34408333001

Stopmotion - Collaboration (Blu and David Ellis)

After i watch the MUTO animation by Blu i wanted to look at other pieces of his animated work and i came across this collaboration with David Ellis (artist). This is very similar to MUTO in style but in this one you can see the two artists within the animation again establishing that it is all hand rendered. I think it is important  for the audience to acknowledge the fact the work is done by hand to gain a greater appreciation to see the effort that has gone into the work. Another thing i thought worked well was the use of the environment they are in, they use the materials, windows, walls and floors in the space and involve them by drawing round, on and in them rather than ignoring them.

Stopmotion Animation on a larger scale (BLU)

This was done by painting on to a wall similar to that of graffiti. They have used a black out line with white to fill the character/object and then used white paint to cover the previous movement. I really like this piece as you can see the trail of movements behind the object, it looks authentic and not at all computer generated. I also like the different compositions of the animation for example in some shots you can see members of the public walk by as the animation is still moving. Another reason i like this is because i prefer hand rendered animation to computer generate because i believe it is more personal to the artist/animator and you can see the length of work they have gone to to create the piece.

This particular piece was created by an italian artist who uses the name BLU to cover his real identity, there isn't much information about the artist however it is mention he is a street artist (graffiti) who's work can be seen all over the world similar to that of Banksy. His work can be seen in places such as Lima, London, Peru, Berlin,  Warsaw and Madrid. Not all of his work is animated the majority of it is still graffiti.

An example of some of Blu's Graffiti work. The piece below was commissioned by the Tate Modern in London.

www.blublu.org

Stopmotion Animation - Hand Drawn

I found this style on youtube it is done on a white board with dry wipe pens. I think the use of dry wipe pens is a good way of creating stopmotion animation as it allows you to draw then rub out without leaving a mark behind it.

Stopmotion Animation - Using Models

I had a look at different styles of stopmotion animation and i completely forgot about some of the most famous and british stopmotion programmes such as Noddy, The clangers, Charlie Chalk and Postman Pat. I think these styles mostly relate to my work as they use models in the animation rather that drawings.

Flipbook

A flip book is simply a series of images on separate pages and when 'flipped' shows movement. It is similar to that of a zoetrope there has to be some sort of movement to allow the images to appear in motion. I like the flip book technique it is amazingly simple and yet so effective however like most types of animation very time consuming. I love the simplicity of the drawings and the fluent movements if done successfully.  

Zoetrope

A zoetrope is a device that produces an illusion of action from a rapid succession of static pictures.

It consists of a cylinder with slits cut vertically in the sides. Beneath the slits on the inner surface of the cylinder is a band which has either individual frames from a video/film or images from a set of sequenced drawings or photographs. As the cylinder spins the user looks through the slits at the pictures on the opposite side of the cylinder's interior. The scanning of the slits keeps the pictures from simply blurring together so that the user sees a rapid succession of images producing the illusion of motion, the equivalent of a motion picture.